Violence and Fear

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I have been pretty low-key lately.

I admit that, while usually I tend to be a somewhat fearless person (not always a good thing), I’ve been really uncomfortable these last few months. Everywhere that I look there seems to be some type of abuse happening. Every week at least one new story of some man harassing or abusing women comes out. Adults are hurting children and targeting elders for muggings. So much crazy comes out of the White House that the actual standard for unacceptable behavior in public office has reached an all-time low. In some circles, such as what Vox reports, the president’s mental health is heavily discussed because of “his lack of empathy, pathological lying, bullying and impulsiveness” showcase several symptoms of a mental illness.

No one is shocked. By either Trump’s issues or local issues.

The police are terrified when doing their job and they are terrifying everyone else. Black boys and men dying has become common and unremarkable. It pains me deeply to voice that. According to a female police officer I recently spoke to, Chicago is one of the main hubs for Human Trafficking in the countryand yet, this doesn’t lead the news every night. The fact that there are thousands of homeless people about to experience a Chicago winter with no shelter is understood and accepted. We just observed Veterans day and while thanking them for their service on one hand, no one has explained why Sgt. La David Johnson was able to be caught, allegedly tortured, and killed but not have his name remembered by his commander-in-chief. The fact that Staff Sergeants Dustin Wright, Jeremiah Johnson and Bryan Black were killed as well was practically overshadowed by the magnitude of that insult, compounding it. Meanwhile, people are still tuning in to keep up with the Kardashians or the housewives of some God-forsaken place or other.

For better or worse, this is where we live. I don’t mean to be alarmist, but it’s time for us to stop being idle consumers of social media content. Find out why Congress and the Senate can secure job security for themselves but not the people. They have excellent healthcare and pensions that we, the citizens do not and will not have. How does this just get past us? They talk about prices rising but they allow companies to arbitrarily set whatever prices they choose for resources, products and services with no cap in site.

It is time for the people, as citizens, to really see the world that we are being handed as it is, because if we do not, one day we might wake up and find that the changes that we wish for are no longer even possible to make.